Mattel And NASA Made The Mars Rover Pink For Barbie

Every time Barbie gets some kind of awesome makeover that makes us like her again, she goes and pink-ifies something awesome in a way we find hugely annoying, and this time NASA got in on the job.

In honor of the one-year anniversary of the Curiosity rover landing on Mars, NASA collaborated with Mattel to produce Mars Explorer Barbie, complete with a shiny, figure-flattering, slim-fit space suit with metallic hot pink accents. Her helmet and oxygen tank are hot pink.

Most annoyingly, this Barbie does not actually come with a tiny model of the Curiosity rover, which seems like a huge oversight to us. The only love the rover gets is a tiny cardboard cutout that will surely be thrown away with the box packaging.

Oh yeah, in the Barbie universe the Mars Rover is pink to match Barbie’s outfit.

“Ready to add her signature pink splash to the ‘red planet,’ [the] Barbie doll is outfitted in a stylish spacesuit with pink reflective accents, helmet, space pack and signature pink space boots,” Mattel said, according to i09. “Adding to her resume of more than 130 careers, Mars Explorer Barbie doll inspires girls to be adventurous and to always reach for the stars!”

Now we’re not saying that we wouldn’t love to have a hot pink robot, but seriously Mattel, not everything has to be pink for girls to like it. Plenty of girls still think space is awesome, even if they have to wear khaki to get there.

Speaking of women who got there, the box is decorated with a list of facts about the history of female space explorers and a link to the Women @ NASA website showing the actual ladies who work there. Those ladies are actually awesome, and only a few of them are wearing pink.